Strength and Conditioning Coach Will Hicks Remarks at the Groundbreaking Ceremony
On the parameters and anticipated finish of the facility:
“It is going to be a little over 11,000 square feet. It will be a two-level facility with 8,000 some odd square feet on the bottom and a 2,000 square-foot mezzanine level. We are shooting to be finished this November for homecoming weekend. Sports Illustrated comes out with an issue with its ‘best of the best’ facilities and our goal is to make that issue. Other schools are going to try to “one-up” us, but I figure we’ll have so many rings at that point that it won’t matter.”
On all the bells and whistles:
“Well, the bells and whistles are functional for recruiting, that is part of the deal. I am a functional weight coach and a 45-pound weight is a 45-pound weight, but they are not going to say ‘standard barbell.’ We will have navy blue weights blue that say ‘Syracuse Football,’ they are going to be made for us. It is not going to be like everybody else. Every step that we can take to make this the best has been considered and is going to be taken. Somebody else will chase the model that we are starting. We have done a lot of research to get to the point that we are at right now, with equipment companies, architects and down to the specific type of flooring that is going to be in the room.”
On the need for a new facility:
“The majority of the need is for space. I really think that – besides football benefiting from this – every sport in our athletic department is going to benefit tremendously. You are pulling a large number of people out of a small area now. In doing that, you can make the (existing) weight room a little more program-friendly to the sports that are not football. Right now, the room is kind of designed with power racks, squat racks and is football oriented. So, we can change that a little to be more for the Olympic sports. It will be a tremendous help to the entire athletic department.”
Is it just for football student-athletes:
“We don’t have anything here at Syracuse that is only this or that. It is a University weight room for the athletic department and it will be used in that fashion. It will depend on schedules and timeframes and those types of things to work with different sports and different athletes.”
